Attorney General: DOJ May Cut Funds to Sanctuary States or Cities

Washington, D.C.—Attorney General Jeff Sessions today urges all states and local jurisdictions to comply with all federal laws, including 8 U.S.C. Section 1373, slamming the so-called sanctuary states or sanctuary cities, and indicates withholding of grants, termination of grants, and disbarment or ineligibility for future grants.

“The Department of Justice has a duty to enforce our nation’s laws, including our immigration laws.  Those laws require us to promptly remove aliens when they are convicted of certain crimes,” said Sessions.  “Unfortunately, some states and cities have adopted policies designed to frustrate the enforcement of our immigration laws.  This includes refusing to detain known felons under federal detainer requests, or otherwise failing to comply with these laws.”

The Department of Homeland Security recently issued a report showing that in a single week, there were more than 200 instances of jurisdictions refusing to honor Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer requests with respect to individuals charged or convicted of a serious crime.  The charges and convictions against these aliens include drug trafficking, hit and run, rape, sex offenses against a child and even murder.

Sessions urges some states and cities to consider carefully the harm they are doing to their citizens by refusing to enforce federal immigration laws, and to re-think these policies.  Such policies make their cities and states less safe, and put them at risk of losing valuable federal dollars.

“The Department of Justice will take all lawful steps to claw-back any funds awarded to a jurisdiction that willfully violates Section 1373,” said the Attorney General.

In the current fiscal year, the department’s Office of Justice Programs and Community Oriented Policing Services anticipate awarding more than $4.1 billion dollars in grants.

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